Odds n ends. Just plain odd.

Though I'll probably trip and fall on them in mass quantities at big box stores without even looking, I preordered SWERVE and TAILGATE with my pal Eric from Til All Are Mine, through Big Bad Toy Store. No hurry.

UPDATE! My Hasbro Toy Shop order of Scoop & the Minicons has shipped! According to an email HTS just sent me! With tracking #s that I don't understand what service they belong to! But I give it about a week. So, keep those fingers crossed. Yo.

MORE THAN MEETS THE NEWS: More Than Meets The Eye Vol. 1 is, as of this moment (Feb. 27th) and until the end of the day possibly, $3.99 on Comixology. That's the "Death Of Optimus Prime" 1 shot and issues 1-3 of this awesome comics series. BUZZER! It is back to $7.99, which is still a good price.

Speaking of MTMTE, look to your right and you'll see MTMTE movie taglines. James Roberts had a contest on Twitter for movie poster taglines if MTMTE ever got a movie...and I submitted 117 lines. And they're terrible. Enjoy!

Okay, that's it for now. Looking for Generations Skids for a few friends, so if you got one and it's not a billion dollars then hit me up and I'll see if I can connect you, yo.

Oh, I'll have some ROBOTS WITH COFFEE news soon. It'll be fun.

Enjoy these too (click on them to see them at their original size):

Like the Raccoon in the Guardians Of The Galaxy trailer? Help out its creator.

Bill Mantlo is one of the guys who created Rocket Raccoon, probably the most interesting part of the introdump trailer for Guardians Of The Galaxy. I mean, c'mon, it's a raccoon shooting a machine gun. Who cares about Andy from Parks & Rec? (Well, I do, I love that show.) Anyway, he also wrote the first two issues of The Transformers Marvel comics, that's just a small taste of the multitude of comics he wrote in the 70's and 80's.

Anyway, if you know anything about the comics biz, especially from the time before Image Comics, you might know that 1. most comic book contributors were freelancers 2. they did something called "work for hire," which among other things meant that if you created a gun toting space raccoon, the publisher and its parent company owned the rights. Listing you as the creator was them being nice.

In this case, Bill Mantlo created Rocket Raccoon and he doesn't see a dime for it today. He probably won't see any money from Disney/Marvel. For them to start paying him would be an admission of shared ownership and that'd be a legal and fiscal problem for everyone, like say Todd McFarlane who created Venom. Things like that. Even DC comics tried (and succeeded, recently) to undo the goodwill gesture of giving Superman's creators a slight piece of the pie until Man Of Steel came out.

Anyway, the real point is: Bill Mantlo was hit by a car 22 years ago and hadn't been the same ever since. It's pretty unfortunate and despite his long time in the Marvel Comics bullpen he probably had no pension or health insurance deductions as a freelancer. I don't know, but I do know that he probably won't see a penny from Rocket Raccoon's appearance in this new movie or action figures sold. There's probably a reason why so few characters are created these days by the big publishers. There's a reason why big publishers sue the former freelancers when they try to sell t-shirts of the characters they created, and don't own.

You can help Bill by checking out this link, reading the story, and donating to his family as they continue to help him out. That would be great.

I will get to more trash talking about plastic toy robots and farts next post, sorry.

Generations Voyager Whirl - another comics page!

If these photos are too dark, um, there are other people who have this figure and took better photos. Enjoy those too. SO, I said I'd update you. The tracking #s that Hasbro sent didn't seem to work under USPS, UPS, or UPS-Mail Innovations, so I would check and there'd be no info as to the progress for this package. Anyway, I got home and woo hoo, there was a box for me! And it was WHIRL!

These weapons? Going right into a ziploc bag
and into a parts box and never coming out
until I sell this guy on eBay in five years.

Now, I'm a huge fan of the Head Robots Drone upgrade, and figured it'd be enough for a Generations Deluxe Whirl (made out of a HFTD Tomahawk) to fit in with the rest of the Lost Light crew. I was going to pass on the Voyager Whirl because it looked way too much like his G1 counterpart, and I had been spoiled by More Than Meets The Eye and was hoping for something with two rotors, one on each side as part of his forearm or elbow. The comic gave him a great personality and a freakish, almost contortionist appearance, and I was disappointed this toy looked like the G1 version.

Of course, the G1 toy (lifted from another toyline, but you have TFWIKI for that info) was remarkable because unlike the TakaraTomy figures that made up the bulk of the line, he had moving arms AND legs. No elbows or knees, but he had 100% more poseability than the Decepticon jets or the Autobot cars (how many had moving legs?).

Jetfire had to be renamed and redesigned for the cartoon. Yet Whirl & Roadbuster couldn't become Dizzy and Pavement Crasher? (Hasbro: call me). I mean, weren't Jetfire and Roadbuster in the same catalogs as Jetfire? Did they just run out of time scrambling to turn Jetfire into Skyfire that they said forget it with Whirl & Roadbuster?

Smile.

You don't have to answer that, I just envision a great introduction of Whirl and Spike freaking out over Whirl's bizarre appearance compared to the rest of the Autobots. "It's not on the outside what counts," lectures Optimus Prime, but Spike is too terrified to listen and runs screaming from the Ark, felled seconds later by Decepticon laser-fire. Wait, why did I go there with that?

You'll notice I didn't do the 3rd mode, "Heloped."
Because there is no Gerwalk mode for Whirl.
"Too lazy to finish transforming" is not an alt mode.

Freakish is what this figure still manages to accomplish. Giving him the chicken legs helps a lot, but be careful: that "knee" piece is really thin. So are the shoulder parts. You'll be moving these pieces a lot transforming and posing him, so be really really careful.

That part? In the middle? Between the blue and silver?
Be REALLY careful. Can't stress that enough. Really.

Some clumsy assembly required.

It also comes with stickers. WHAT? Is this the first Classics to do so? How much work do I have to do with this one? They remind me of the GI Joe vehicles you'd spend too much time putting decals on only to skew ONE and have the whole thing look extra fake. There doesn't seem to be any injokes/references from More Than Meets The Eye hidden in the stickers.

Anyway, cool figure. I took a quick pic of the Whirl lineage. Tiny Whirl became incredibly fragile since I got him, by the way.

I gave Head Robots Whirl a baseball bat just because.

BONUS! I bought this from Brian Shearer. It's a page from More Than Meets The Eye, #20. This is another terrible phone pic with some boosted contrast. Sorry. It and some other pages (mentioned in previous posts) are being framed. I'll take a good pic when I get them all back.

Okay, that's it. Continue reading the news and fan heartbreak and 2nd guessing from the ToyBusinessConventionThing. I'll read all about it in Transformers Aficionado magazine, known for its great articles and tasteful photos of Arcee on a bearskin rug.

(Transformers Aficionado is not a real magazine.)

Robots with Valentine's...cards!

Hey, I added a new page of Valentine's Day cards taken from the RwC page. Enjoy.

Other stuff:
-If your local comics retailer is the type that rewards you for pre-orders (like discounts), now is the time to pre-order More Than Meets The Eye & Robots In Disguise #28, and Windblade #1.
-WTF is going on with the KREO line and Cosmos? I'll miss the Kreons (if they're really cancelled) but can deal. COSMOS? This better not mean I won't get Swerve.
-first shots of Windblade look like First Edition Prime Arcee, but with a new head. "BUT SHE HAS A NEW HAT!" yells Smithers. Still, will probably get it.
-Voyager Generations Jetfire looks great, but, uh, I have enough actual Jetfires and the last Skyfire. So I'm passing.
-The TF4 figures look dopey but I have no interest in them to begin with.

UPDATE: Comic Book Movie link has clearer movie toy pics and, uh, no thanks.

Nothing else to add. Much love to you all. @robotswcoffee on Twitter.
-paul

Happy Valentines' Day...with Coffee.

Head over to the RwC Facebook page for more. Hit the like button, share, whatever. Maybe I'll post more tonight and tomorrow. Love you all.

The Robocop remake needs this guy falling down a flight of stairs. Just sayin'.

Reasons Megatron becomes an Autobot in MTMTE #28

So if you had been lulled into a deep coma by the pace of IDW's Dark Cybertron (oh, be nice! It started to pick up with the most recent issues), you may have awoken to this teaser/cover to More Than Meets The Eye #28. Pretty wild, huh? Megatron with an Autobot symbol? What the what?

Beyond Megatron & Co. carrying out the dream envisioned by Ironhide in the Ongoing #31 for Pax Cybertronia (colonizing other worlds, reforming them into places inhabitable for robots blah blah blah), what could be the reason for this TWIST? I speculated on twitter a few months ago:

1. lost a bet.
2. amnesia.
3. kicked out of Decepticons by Starscream.
4. Revelation/prophecy by Titan, similar to the one Starscream received.
5. red badges have a slimming look.
6. eh, why not?
7. Orion Pax: "Megatron, join the Autobots!" Megatron: "Oh Orion Pax, I can't say no to you!"
8. have you MET the Decepticons? Ew.
9. shanix discount on wax jobs.
10. Decepticons have a bad reputation with the rest of the Universe for some reason.
11. We're not tired of the "Mirror Mirror" bit.
12. Maybe it will impress Elita-1.
13. The Lost Light crew are a fun bunch. Swerve CERTAINLY won't get on my nerves.
14. the PERFECT disguise!
15. wants to show Cyclonus how to commit.
16. ringer for Autobot bowling team.
17. prank by troops when he had too much to drink and passed out a Decepticon mixer; same prank for humans, but with faction symbols, not magic markers.
18. Finally got a chance to cover up that unsightly birthmark...wait, you guys thought it was a symbol for a new movement?
19. egging on the DJD at this point.
20. trying to blow the DJD collective minds in hopes that they stop being the DJD.
21. if he "quits," the other Decepticons will start killing each other in attempts to take control. When the dust settles, he takes it back!
21.5 But if they're dead, who would he be in charge of? A bunch of dead decepticons?
22. very convoluted plan to meet, punch Thunderclash.
23. despite being leader of the Decepticons, had to share habsuite with Astrotrain for the last 2 million years. Breaking point finally reached.
24. Megatron was the Autobot spy Punch...THIS WHOLE TIME!
25. come to think of it, trying to reclaim a devastated, "primordial" barren Cybertron kinda sucks. Let Starscream have it, I'm outta here!
26. Ammonites are pretty annoying. Better join Autobots and exterminate Stenorians.
27. You still talking about the slow pace of Dark Cybertron? (slaps on Autobot logo) There, this'll shut you up.
28. Run is a GREAT psychiatrist.
29. Reprolabels sent the WRONG stickers!
30. Good friends with Pipes, despite war. PIIIIIIPES!

another silly page.

I pre-ordered stuff! with an UPDATE

As of this writing, Hasbro Toy Shop has Voyager Whirl and the Deluxe wave of FOC Skywarp, Armada Starscream, Scoop and Ammonites (Mini-Cons) available to order. Try this coupon: TFLEGENDS15

UPDATE: It would be irresponsible to NOT mention that my shipping confirmation reads like this: I'll be getting one Deluxe at the end of February and the rest in late March. D'oh! But I'm in no hurry. So, sorry if you rushed like I did to take advantage and they won't be sending yours out until the end of March.

DOUBLE UPDATE! Looks like Whirl is marked as "shipped" and both Deluxes scheduled for the end of March. What the what? Now I just have no idea. Also don't know how this will affect the "Free shipping" I was offered if they keep breaking it into separate packages. Anyway, I WILL CALL EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU INDIVIDUALLY WHEN I LEARN MORE. OR I WILL JUST POST IT HERE.

I preordered Whirl, Scoop, and the Mini-Cons. I really LOVE the Headrobots upgrade for Tomahawk and originally was going to skip this version because it looked closer to the G1 version and I was hoping for a more MTMTE design as I've been spoiled with Hoist, Trailbreaker, and Skids. I saw a few pics of the final product online and thought, hmmmm, not SO bad. Well, HTS has it for $19.99 (CURRENTLY). When I go to Toys R Us, the Voyagers are $29 before tax, and then some Target are priced in the 23-27 range. SO, with free shipping over a certain amount, I figured why not. If he sucks, one of you can buy him off of me.

This simplifies the search for me because the Deluxes from this wave are showing up in the burbs and will start creeping into places that I'll have wade through more snow...did I mention that it hasn't stopped snowing or being terribly freezing since the last post? Because there's even MORE snow and temps are still going to plummet every other day. Yay.

I have other errands to run and going to a Target out of my way to see only Armada Starscream on the shelves is not how I want to spend my weekend.

Anyway.

I'll let you know how it turns out, yo.

Trypticoffee.